Abstract
In many publications, infrared spectroscopy excelled in multi-analyte assays of biofluids. Based on such technology, laboratory and point-of-care applications can be envisaged and most needed devices are for blood glucose measurements. Implementing strict glycemic control can reduce the risk of serious complications in both diabetic and critically ill patients. For this purpose, many different blood glucose monitoring techniques and insulin infusion strategies have been tested towards the realization of an artificial pancreas under closed loop control. However, for patient portable instrumentation current FTIR-spectrometers are still too bulky, which need replacement by devices that allow further miniaturization. Recently developed external cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCL) are tuneable over about 200 cm-1, which however is still narrow, compared to the range accessible with FTIR-devices. In this work, we applied bandwidth constraints to previous FTIR-studies on blood plasma and dialysates of biofluids. For the clinically most important blood glucose no impairment was found using one laser only, provided that specific interferents were missing. Other analytes of interest, such as lactate and urea, indicated the need of broader tuneability over about 500 cm-1 with a second or third laser for a simultaneous glucose assay.
